"Death squad" threatens Ciudad Juarez

In a country where violence has grown the border city of Ciudad Juarez is one of the most unsafe. Last year alone, for example over 1650 murders took place in the seemingly lawless northern Mexico city.

Is it any wonder then that paramilitaries have threatened to take the law into their hands?

“Citizens tired with the impunity created in this city have formed the Juarez Citizens Command (CCP) whose goal is to try to end…with the criminals that have caused terror” according to an e-mail sent to journalists…

According to the group, which has yet to commit any particular action, it has the financial backing of “businesses affected” by violence. CCP’s mission is to “kill a criminal every 24 hours.” – [ed. personal translation]

Unfortunately the emergence of “death squads” in northern Mexico is nothing new; according to Mexico’s El Universal another group calling itself the Citizens Front against Corruption and Violence came forward last March. Their emergence in the state of Chihuahua coincided with a surge in killings of drug pushers and police involved in the drug trade.

A “security expert” interviewed by Mexico’s Excelsior warned that the CCP’s communiqué must be taken seriously in that the group’s aim is to “substitute the state’s activities with vigilante justice.”

Image- Los Angeles Times (“A woman collapses in a relative’s arms in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, after gunmen killed her son and injured the boy’s father.”)
Online Sources- Excelsior, El Universal, LAHT, Univision.com, ajc.com